40 Step forward

Roland and Red Pepper arrived outside at the training ground. When they arrived all the witches were surprised by seeing Red Pepper's smile since the time she spent here was mostly with a gloomy or stoic expression. Nightingale frowned and looked at Roland with suspicion but when he didn't react to her in any suspicious way, she dropped it.

"Alright, we are all here so we are good to begin. Lightning, you can take care of reloading the cannon, just make sure it is clean when reloading it. As for this beauty...I will operate it myself " Roland gave Lightning permission to start and she happily started reloading the cannon.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the new device Roland brought with him. It literally looked just like a metal tube with a few attachments.

"Your Highness, what is that?" Carter couldn't tone down his curiosity and ask.

"Curiosity killed the cat...Just wait until I test it out." Roland said with a mysterious smile which made Carter retreat a few steps back away from it.

When Lightning was done, Red Pepper took care of the rest, telling everyone to cover their ears.

*BANG!*

A loud sound resonated at the training ground and the iron ball traveled several hundred meters before falling down, however even after falling on the ground, it kept going for a few additional hundred meters before stopping entirely.

"If we can use this weapon on those big hybrid beasts, their bones will definitely break. However bringing this heavy weapon on the wall will be troublesome." Carter said, inspecting the cannon.

"Alright, we will fire a few more shots with the cannon, however before that, I want to try out this weapon next. We can't mass produce its ammunition yet so I will use only 1 or 2 shots." Roland said and put the mortar on the ground.

"How are we going to ignite the gunpowder?" Anna asked, inspecting the end of the metal tube.

'Have I mentioned that it's going to work the same way as the cannon or did she just assume that? For the standards of this word, she is really smart and can adapt to new things very quickly. I bet she would need only a few weeks to adapt to modern society.'

"No need to ignite anything, just retreat away from it." Roland said and everyone did as he said while curiously looking at the mortar.

'Alright, you better work' Roland thought and brought the ammunition above the tube before dropping it and taking a few steps back while covering his ears.

When the mortal round was shot, it was nowhere as loud as the cannon which made most people stop covering their ears.

"Um, was that-"

*BOOM!* Carter's words were cut off by a loud explosion approximately 700 meters away from them.

"-everything?" Carter finished his words while looking at the cloud of smoke in the distance with a dumbfounded expression.

"Let's take a look at the damage"

Everyone followed after Roland and when they arrived, they were shocked to see a small crater, much bigger than caused by those gunpowder explosions.

"Um, Your Highness, may I ask why are you making all those weapons? The cannon should be more than enough to deal with the demonic hybrids and the ammunition is most likely also much easier to make." Carter asked which prompted Roland to look at him, Iron Axe and then at the witches.

"Let's just say it is a preparation for the future troubles." Roland said with a smile.

"Carter, what do you think those two weapons would do if used against the battalion of knights?" Roland asked which surprised Carter.

"It would cause enormous damage...just one shot could kill or injure several knights. Are you saying that we will have to face knights in the near future?" He replied before asking with a confused expression.

"Hm" Roland just looked towards the direction of Longsong Stronghold which gave him the message.

"But...Duke wouldn't dare to do such a thing!" Carter said with an angry expression as if he already knew inside that Duke might do something.

"Why do you still think so? Timothy took the throne which would give him a good excuse if I refused to go back. He would capture me and present me to the "new king" who might also reward him since he wouldn't need to trouble himself with me. His aim is probably the mines but most likely his ego was also damaged by me taking over a part of his territory."

"Therefore, Iron Axe..." Roland called out.

"Yes, Your Highness?" Iron Axe saluted and waited for the orders.

"Start subtly teaching the recruits about fighting with other humans. They mustn't show any mercy when we will be attacked. It's still the winter so we can expect Duke to take action after the heavy snow between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold melts. Before that, we will have more than enough muskets to take them by the surprise. We will also have a few more cannons along with a new ship. We will use that ship to transport those cannons."

"How come we can afford all those things?" Carter asked in awe. Although he wasn't exactly aware of the financial situation, he knew that Border Town was too small to make so many gold royals.

"Um...I am selling, uh, knowledge" Roland avoided everyone's stares and replied while looking sideways.

'Liar!' Nightingale thought while the others believed his words since he came up with all those new inventions.

After seeing how she was looking at him, Roland put his index finger over his lips and playfully winked at her as if telling her that he is going to give her something for her silence. A strange smile appeared on her face after understanding Roland's message.

.

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After testing out the new weapons, Roland told them to go and do whatever they had to do. Carter and Iron Axe went to train the recruits and also tell them about the cannon so they could find a small crew to operate it. Roland told Wendy that he would like to experiment with her magic near the evening after taking care of all paperwork.

'How did we end up like this?' Roland thought while taking care of the paperwork with an uncomfortable expression. Nightingale was sitting on his lap like before, however, what made him uncomfortable was the fact that she wasn't even trying to actively distract him from his work. Ironically, her actions were more distracting him than if she was trying to talk to him.

'I don't even know what we are. Are we a couple? Does sharing one quick kiss make people into a couple? Or does it have to be verbal agreement similar to marriage?' Roland could feel his brain overheating from thinking about such things despite them being quite irrelevant. He couldn't focus on the work in front of him at all due to those thoughts.

"Hm? Are you already done for today?" Nightingale asked when she noticed that he stopped working for quite a while.

"If I say yes, what are you going to do?" He replied with a forced smile.

"Hmm...Your expression back at the training ground clearly said that you are going to give me something for not exposing your lie..." 'Even though I wouldn't expose it anyway, good for me' Nightingale said with a thoughtful expression, thinking hard of what to ask for.

"Eh...Well, I could deny it since you have no witness but considering the things you have done for me...go ahead" Roland replied with a faint smile.

It took her a few minutes before she looked like she was ready but then her face turned faintly red.

"Then...how about recreating the scene from a few days ago?" She asked, slowly wrapping her arms around his neck. Despite becoming bolder, she was still quite hesitant and one of the reasons was consideration for Roland's feelings.

Her actions only confused Roland more than before, wondering where they stand. In the modern era, he would say it's a spontaneous moment or them becoming a couple but he had no idea how romance works in this era. He only knew about forced marriages and political marriages, he actually wasn't even sure whether people were getting intimate without the idea of marrying each other already planted in their heads.

Despite not being sure, he decided to do whatever he really wants.

He tilted his head, silently telling her to go ahead. Nightingale's eyes lit up with happiness before she close them and brought her face closer. This time, their kiss was much longer than before, and still couldn't see the end.

Nightingale started feeling a bit uncomfortable sitting on his lap sideways while kissing so without breaking a kiss, she changed her position thanks to her agility and now she was straddling him. Despite not having opened eyes, Roland noticed the change in her position and he couldn't deny that he was slightly turned on, knowing that she was practically wearing a mini skirt.

He was actually waiting for Nightingale to stop the kiss this time but it looked like she wasn't willing to do so on her own. The kiss was slowly getting wilder therefore Roland stopped in time, he didn't want Nightingale to regret anything and he knew very well how many bad decisions can be made when in a state of sexual excitement.

When their lips parted ways, Nightingale was staring straight into his eyes with her hands on his shoulders while faintly blushing.

They were just silently looking at each other but instead of feeling awkward, instead, they felt it would be weirder if they were to speak out. When Roland felt like her stare was turning hungry, he felt a need to speak out since it wasn't just her but he was also practically imagining her nude.

"Heh, I think we did more than recreate it...Correct me if I am wrong but I don't remember it that way." Roland said jokingly which brought some sense into Nightingale.

"Hehe, maybe, however, after today I will probably remember more this scene than the first one." She giggled and replied in the same way.

"Um, that's two of us. Anyway, I should get to Wendy and help her experiment with her magic." Roland said and Nightingale just realized the position she was sitting on him which made her jump up, trying to cover her red cheeks.

"Y-Yeah, good luck in there!" She said before disappearing.

'I did it?! What just happened there? I got too absorbed in the kiss and I ended up...Ah! I hope he was alright with it since he didn't stop me sooner.' Nightingale remained in Roland's office and the memories of the earlier moment were suddenly flooding into her mind as she was pressing her hands against her red cheeks. The reason she was thinking that way was because she knew Roland is a prince and he was supposed to marry a noblewoman or someone from another country to strengthen bonds. She couldn't imagine what would have happened if he announced that he was marrying a witch.

And once the thought of Roland marrying her appeared in her mind, her face got even redder.